Thursday, October 26, 2006

Growing Population Filling New Houses

A new report was released yesterday from AIB on the current state of the property market. The report expects a slowdown in the rate of price increases and sees a soft landing ahead. The chart below shows up some interesting data for the Longford region. It shows the ratio of house completions to population. Despite all the building in the county the ratio is declining as the population increases to fill up new houses. Fears of overbuilding in Longford due to tax incentives appear to be unfounded and the trend in the chart is very positive for the local market.

Some of the Section 23 houses are being bought by investors who are renting them out to recent immigrants. Many of the new arrivals are working in the building trade but most are working in the service industry. A lot of the population growth is made up of people relocating from the greater Dublin area.